Farm to school lessons, changing seasons and Earth Day

For the past several weeks we've had weekly guests come from our local farm-to-school organization to teach us about healthy eating, nutrition, gardening, and where our food comes from! So far we have learned about the importance of eating a variety of colors on our plate, the parts of the plant we eat, and what bees do for our food supply! Below are some pictures of our lessons, plus bean seeds we planted and the farmers market we had set up in the room at one of our explore tables.

We've also been learning about signs of spring, as warm weather finally seems here to stay. We did a sort based on signs of each season, and used Qtips to paint what trees look like in each season as well!

Last, we celebrated Earth Day by doing marble paintings of the earth and water color paintings of something the earth has given us. They turned out great!

Playing and learning outside in the spring

Spring has finally arrived in our area, and the kids have loved playing and being outside. We've been studying weather and sunshine during science time, which has meant lots of trips outside to record and experience the weather. More about that on another week! For now, here are some pictures of everyone enjoying the beautiful spring weather during recess, Forest Friday, and other parts of the day.

We started off last week exploring birds and recording signs of spring in our neighborhood.

We also spent a recess period outside in the front yard, as well as our first Forest Friday since winter started! The schoolyard has new giant tree stumps for climbing - which was a great opening to talk about risk and the importance of listening to your body and heart when trying something new, as well as asking for help when you need it. 

We also did some digging in the garden and searching for worms.

The hill provided lots of opportunities for heavy lifting and teamwork to get large stumps up the hill.

We also brought out tools for learning about the outdoors more deeply - including clipboards for observational drawings, binoculars, magnifying glasses, and egg cartons for nature collections.

Learning about insects and pollination

Our theme these past couple weeks has been all about insects! Below are some activities we did to learn more about insects, including how they pollinate, what defines an insect, and what types we can find in our area.

Here our farm-to-school group came to sing a song about pollination, and do a pollination role play with yellow cotton balls serving as pollen. 

We also went on a bug hunt in the schoolyard!

I brought in some insect specimens to inspect closely.

My WIN group did a more involved insect research project, in which students got to choose an insect to research, using books and the website Pebble Go. After taking notes, they made posters that they presented to the class on our last day.

We have also been going to the garden weekly, where a parent (and scientist) runs learning stations for us. One of the stations was testing the wind with streamers. Another was experimenting with acids and bases (and making explosions).

We visited our Sit Spots in the mini-forest, and added to our time wheels (aka phenology wheels) to document what we observed this season. We only have one more sit to document before our wheels are complete!

We also took a field trip to the zoo! I don't have a lot of photos since I was only with one group of students, so if you have more, feel free to send them to me and I'll post them here!